Background
Elisabeth (also known as Elsa) was born at Vienna, Austria-Hungary, she was the daughter of Wilhelm Isak, Ritter von Gutmann, and his second wife Ida Wodianer. Her father was a Jewish businessman from Moravia, his coal trading company a leading position in the market occupied by the Habsburg monarchy, he was knighted in 1878 by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Between 1891–1892 he was president of the Vienna Israelite Community.